1In the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chislev.
2Now Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with his men, to entreat the favor of Yahweh,
3to speak to the priests who belonged to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, abstaining as I have done these many years?”
4Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,
5“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
6And when you eat and when you drink, are you not the ones eating, and you the ones drinking?
7Are these not the words that Yahweh proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease, along with her surrounding cities, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?
8And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,
9“Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Render true justice, and show loyal love and compassion, each to his brother.
10Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the sojourner or the poor, and do not devise evil against one another in your hearts.”
11But they refused to pay heed; they turned a stubborn shoulder and made their ears too heavy to hear.
12They made their hearts like flint, so as not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the hand of the former prophets. So great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.
13“And it happened that, just as he called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear, said Yahweh of hosts.
14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one passing through or returning. So they made the pleasant land a desolation.”
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